russia and syria appeal first strains in course you know responding to the alleged use of chemical weapons which the white house says it's prepared to go to war over . while american lawmakers lean towards rebuffing barack obama's syria strike call as a group of former u.s. intelligence officials claim the president's being misled in his case for intervention. and results so far put moscow's acting leader in front in the landmark marry the election but his main opposition rival puts up a strong find.

a welcome you're watching r.t. coming to you live from moscow with me andrew farm. now russia and syria say they all stand together for peace in the face of a mounting u.s. push for war against damascus the message from the russian and syrian syrian foreign ministers came after their meeting in moscow on monday sean thomas listened into their news conference and joins me now sean. sean what were the arguments that moscow and damascus were putting out there today against any action by washington. well the two foreign. ministers met. basically discussing the latest on the ground in situ the situation in syria also saying that they were against the idea of foreign intervention and they say that any action has to happen in accordance to international law sergey lavrov said that he's dedicated to bring all parties to

the table to discuss a solution in syria but the rebels need to be isolated and that no one party can hijack or monopolize the solution he says that they need to wait for the united nations to complete their investigation and for those results to be brought on the table also calling for the un inspectors to come back into syria and can plead their work. sergey lavrov reminded the public that they have evidence that it could be the rebels themselves that actually used chemical weapons back in march and so the situation isn't as cut and dry as making it seem to be he also said that the humanitarian situation on the ground in syria inside the war zone is dire and that a cease fire needs to be negotiated so that humanitarian aid can be brought in to help the people and then also called on the united states to lead the way in peace process here what he had to say about that. syrian colleague has confirmed that damascus is willing to attend the geneva two conference without any preconditions

in order to look for a solution to the crisis together with the opposition and we now call on our american colleagues to focus their efforts this instead of preparing a military strike. now last week it was decided that russia was going to send a delegation to the united states of lawmakers to meet with u.s. lawmakers that is now not going to happen it has been announced because. the leader harry reid and the house speaker john boehner said that they would not meet with a russian delegation on the topic of syria so russia announcing that they would not be making that happen now as far as his counterpart. syria's foreign minister he said that damascus is ready to come to the negotiating table for geneva two peace conferences without preconditions that's a big move also said that they're working with russia to prevent an attack from the united states and to work towards peace he said that the case for a strike against syria is very similar to the case that the u.s.

made for invasion in iraq ten years ago he then thanked the united kingdom the e.u. and the people of the united states for standing up against the idea of a strike and then went on to criticize president obama saying that while he pretends to support the idea of democracy he's not listening to the voice of his own people he also showed an element of surprise wondering why the united states would be interested in helping these particular rebels at all let's listen to what he had to say. we have to ask how can president obama order a strike and support those who are behind the nine eleven terrorist attacks we also ask isn't washington using the same arguments to justify military action just as the did before invading iraq. so both foreign ministers coming to the table and agreeing to work towards peace and condemning international potential action and also this morning show in the u.s. secretary of state is in london has been. said that.

john kerry and william hague met in london and in that meeting william hague said that the u.s. has the full diplomatic. support of the united kingdom despite the fact that parliament voted against the idea of military intervention john kerry went on to say that assad could prevent an attack from the united states if he handed over his entire chemical weapons arsenal by next week so big news here that kerry is offering a way out or a way for to prevent some sort of intervention by said that evidence of the assad regime having used chemical weapons is compelling on the idea of a strike he said that the scope would be unbelievably small and a limited kind of effort also saying that the united states will not be going to war now this is important wording because only congress has the ability to declare war so it is believed that this could be john kerry making the case for the united

states to act or the president to act without approval making that case now he also said that it doesn't matter if it didn't order an attack that it was a regime and the regime is a regime and so action needs to be taken so at this point time it looks like both sides sticking to their guns in terms of their positions on the conflict in syria. but with barack obama's finger firmly on the syria intervention trigger u.s. lawmakers will reconvene later on monday to debate going to war but the white house has made clear it still has the say so on whether to bomb damascus regardless of what capitol hill thinks congress is skeptical over this case against assad is even administration officials admit they lack undeniable proof to implicate the syrian government in the deadly use of chemical weapons u.s.

senators are almost evenly split into votes for and against intervention with half of the chamber still undecided while the lower a more populated house has most lawmakers firmly against the war leaning towards tuning down the war cry. has the latest from washington and you might find some of the images in her report distressing. the upcoming vote in congress might not be as slam dunk as many thought it would be considering the support for military action in syria that congressional leaders have previously expressed members of congress admit that they are being bombarded by calls from their constituents ninety nine percent of whom demand that they vote no to the administration's plan to bomb syria ministration has failed to show me the direct threat to the united states of america we have absolutely no guarantee it will expand no guarantee of peace in the region the cia has prepared a video presentation that shows the aftermath of the brainless attacks in syria it's a collection of gruesome videos that were previously posted on you tube it's designed

to sway members of congress to vote yes on bombing syria but the videos as gruesome as they are do not offer proof that the assad government has carried out the attacks nor does the four page on classified report released by the administration earlier members of congress are supposed to get the proving classified hearings but as congressman alan grayson said they're being given intelligence briefings without any hard evidence to support administration's claims that the syrian leader has ordered the use of chemical weapons here's another members of congress are not allowed to discuss the classified hearings so we have no way of knowing what the administration has. because lawmakers are unable to discuss the evidence the classified evidence even among themselves unless they are inside an approved reading room and as congressman grayson says questioning the official account of events is quote actively discouraged is that the obama administration is doing what it calls flooding the field in other words try to monopolize the conversation

dominate the discourse and provide only information in favor of an attack to members of congress and to the public i think that's unfortunate there's always two sides to the story when you talk about war and peace the public and congress definitely here deserve to hear about both sides the president's aides are saying that he will listen to congress the president himself is hinting that he might not listen to congress which of course begs the question why this charade in congress then. well the latest polls show most americans are also against intervention in syria the figures are even higher in france than the u.k. where sixty and eighty percent respectively are against military action and similar sentiments are shared in germany and this really while in syria's neighbor turkey the percentage of those against intervention is even higher now last month alleged deadly use of chemical weapons in syria was most likely a provocation by the rebels according to a prominent team of former u.s.

intelligence officials they're now appealing to the white house to scrap its war plan saying president obama is being misled into believing a sad was responsible cia veteran ray mcgovern is among the group and he told kevin why he thinks the case for intervention is politically motivated. last friday kerry went before the cameras and said we got to do this and here's the not intelligence assessment mind you but the government assessment meaning the white has white house had a chance to massage it had it edited ok it is the exception it didn't hold up to scrutiny or apparently the military got to the president and i see some evidence of this next thing we know that the president has changed his mind on saturday afternoon and the only thing that really intervened was the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff martin dempsey telling the president look you know it's going to be really hard as we're going to be really hard to explain what we have to do this now we

could do this tomorrow or next week or next month we don't really have to do it now and the president said that in justifying his the lay now what's more evidence lindsey graham and john mccain the next day just took off after the joint chiefs of staff chairman in a very personal and vindictive way because they know that finally the military leaders went to the president said look you know we know we know you've been told that this is going to be easy and limit all our stuff but these guys and these gals don't know a thing about war we do how do you think the congressional votes going to play out in the upcoming vote which way is it going to go i talked to a congressman last night for five minutes and it was very clear that he pledged to house leader nancy pelosi that he would vote according to what that what the president says because we have to protect the president and are you going to are you going to say that the president is why you don't have to say the president is

lying when you do need to say according to our information is that the president being given cooked up intelligence because john brennan the head of the cia and james clapper it can be confessed perjury or have thought it in their interests to to cater to the wishes of the white house which have been very clear this time we want to strike syria. meanwhile in syria islamist extremists have arrested the syrian army out of the ancient christian village of moola which has been besieged since last wednesday the village was seen as a beacon of tolerance in syrian society and one of the oldest christian places of worship artesian rif an ocean has just returned from malaysia. we so what more lulu looks like right now this is a very sad picture would used to be picturesque a village surrounded by mountains in the central part of syria where you feel like time has almost stalled where people train in numerous churches all across the

village in make the language over jesus christ in greek in arabic and in french what also is home to dozens over. most of this now looks like battlefield and i want you now to take a look at what we saw. in the row militants and my little now and our. hotel this is the mountaintop hotel which was the. rubble. but as i say. the militants first of all. exploded the car at the checkpoint to enter the village and after that they took the mountain

tops if it had tel and they are firing from this position and this is the highest point in the village and also in the running to find the. ground in modeler so their position is very strong in a very good and the no one can say for sure now for how long it will last my little is a very symbolic place it reflects how the entire syrian society used to be a very secular society and enveloping very tolerant society and right now we can see that this society is shaken and this is exactly what is happening within thai syrian community so it is a very symbolic attack and. recently we saw video posted on you tube where people who call themselves jihad this mujahideen who invaded my daughter they are in model on this video they're saying that they came to my lawyer to protect people from the brutal regime of bashar al assad how cynic is this we were in mali last

year in spring and i have to say that i haven't seen any place even here in syria where life is so calm and is so peaceful. still to come this hour an ugly truth inside a modern day south africa apartheid isn't yet one time in the very heart of the nation we report shortly on how the country's disturbing history is still alive. and that we know christmas cheer for some burden is where lawmakers say religious festivals aren't equal enough they've already put the wrecking ball through ramadan and war on the political party papers in a couple. of . technology innovation all the developments around

russia we've got the future covered. ok. i dave a croc it welcome you to take your oliver jane it's a little island in the middle of the chesapeake bay and a virginia shod. county. rampager all in the chesapeake bay probably one of the best there is in the phone call fred. this is an old picture of ten deer island before the channel was cut oh here. they are. as you go all. right here are some of the headstones from the graves that for you this is a fruit that's what we don't want happen to tangier all and we want to get some protection and make sure that we don't go into the chesapeake bay like uppers did in other communities.

welcome but now after a tough contest to be most guys next looks like incumbency gates again and has secured over fifty percent of the fight and he's keeping the job but his main opposition rival. to secure almost. senior political correspondent has been watching the results for us and how the predictions being panning out looks like to be i mean he's back in doesn't he is back in the van in. its number now with one hundred percent of the votes counted is fifty one point thirty seven percent but his main rival pro-democracy movement leader anticorruption leader. fared much better than expected really at twenty seven point twenty four official

results formally will be announced later but it looks like with one hundred percent counted these are going to be the numbers. now when polls were taken when he started campaigning and he was only getting around ten percent so he really did do much better than people thought but another thing to take into consideration is turnout only thirty three percent of registered voters showed up that's surprising a lot of analysts because in recent years we've seen a lot more people politically active you have social media we had anti-government protests back in two thousand and eleven and it was supposed that a lot more people would come out to vote that wasn't the case and this was the first time voting for a mayor in a decade the last elections were in two thousand and three and even then turnout was at fifty percent so that's come as a bit of surprise just to let you know a little bit about for viewers more so about these two top candidates surrogates have been of course incumbent mayor he's had quite a bit of success. in moscow traffic in bringing moscow up to higher european

standards and he promised to basically continue that line obviously it's worked alexina why didn't his demographic tends to be younger crowds he did a lot of grassroots campaigning lots of handing out flyers going to districts himself and that is very new to russian politics so for against it certainly has to be said that politics are taking on a new life here in russia ok thanks and they see this. in that way thank you. strenuous efforts by britain's defense ministry to balance out its losses may have been famous stack of management mistakes have been revealed which have cost the u.k.'s military over one under half a billion pounds that r.t. dot com it tells you where the most biting blunders were. and are used to seeing russia's armed forces parade through red square but for eight days

moscow shooting into military orchestras from around the world check out our gallery of the grand sea which has just concluded in the capital. just outside south africa's capital stands the statue of the man who was behind the policies of apartheid so whites only enclave which allows black visitors only under special permit but this is not some sort of open a history museum it's very real self-sustained he mean it. went to explore. half hour drive north of south africa's capital and you'll be forgiven for thinking you've traveled back in time it might be two decades since nelson mandela was sworn in as the country's first black president but communities hankering after south africa's apartheid past when racial segregation was enshrined in law are starting to wave their nationalistic colors when white people first advanced into the

interior of south african eighteen hundreds this is what they saw before them vast dissolute stretches of land and now one hundred fifty years later they were turning to the dreams of a forefathers to create an independent entity with their own laws flag and language welcome to claim fontayne an aspiring whites only enclave if you're black you can visit but only for a few hours and with special permission but there's a little there's redistrict. if you go to work you can come in the first thing that greets you is you coming to claim fontayne is a bust of hendrik for vote the former south african prime minister considered the architect of a party eight although signposts are written off the cons the language spoken by the town's one thousand inhabitants who can all trace their lineage back to the european settlers who arrived here in the sixteen hundreds residents insist they are not racist it's just that they don't welcome jews catholics or any english

speakers either merissa has lived in came from ten for six years she says she feels safe here there's no crime and she enjoys being part of a community that shares the same culture and history this is private property so we're not taking anything from anybody else so we don't think i think it's a racial but we are we feel strongly about our identity and we want to protect that and preserve it. claim for danes residence include professors engineers and other middle class professionals they pay fees to a copper to avoid that. gives him water and electricity the community has survived largely without the help of the government it has its own water pumps and a natural reservoir and there's a shopping center a bank a school overtime and center and several small businesses it's residence aid self-sufficiency born out of necessity they dream is to create their own flag and currency. that many of the laws or based on race.

benefit a certain racial group they speak of black economic empowerment and many of our young people that weren't even born in the a particular don't have access to work that don't have free access to education. iliza smith moved here after being unable to find work she now cleans houses a job she's very grateful to have my skin as well that i there is no i'm not black abroad for work no work and in my free i get to work. and that's when we come back here. under a party to the white afrikaner led government forced black south africans to live in homelands now decades later the dice has turned and many white off the corners feel that white homelands are the only solution but many south africans fear their communities that came from tain a merely lingering outpost of the apartheid era threatening to return the country back to the dark days of its racist past policy r.t.

came from tain south africa. so international news in brief and i remain is witnessing mass protests against plans to build europe's largest open cast gold mine thousands of march nationwide to voice their criticism over a draft approval for a canadian company to mine for gold and silver in western france the very near environmentalist say the mine could become an ecological time bomb project will mean the destruction of historic sites dating back to the roman empire and for mountains in the area hundreds of families also have to be relocated. there have been a series of suicide bomb attacks targeting an intelligence headquarters near the afghan capital at least four offices are dead the taliban admits the string of assaults on local government offices in the town of made where which also left more than one hundred others wounded the area is a key province for the group's insurgents and al qaeda fighters because they use it to launch attacks on nearby cobol province. and one corner of berlin christmas has

been cancelled centuries of celebration are being swept aside for the more plain and neutral winter festival and it's not only christians muslims lost their right to publicly market ram it down instead they got some of fest paid all of the reports and how few are cheering in the changes we may just be approaching the start of autumn here in germany but already minds are turning towards christmas and in particular the traditional german christmas market these markets which pop up all over the country that sell handmade christmas toys and mold wine generally regarded as fun for all the family and they've become a major export from germany popping up as well all around the world however this year in berlin they could be in for something of a change of name in one particular region in the quite area of the capital councilors there have ruled that the public celebration of religious festivals

isn't allowed which will see the christmas market become the winter festival market now this rebranding has ruffled a few feathers but it does have its roots and it decision made earlier this year the islamic community in this part of town had wanted to hold public celebrations to mark the end of ramadan they were told that they couldn't and now next year's celebrations may go ahead under the name of the summerfest to go alongside the winterfest in a move that critics are saying could just end up upsetting everybody what we've ended up doing is not just prohibiting ramadan so abrasions we are prohibiting the soul of all religious holidays under the pretext of equality but i think we are forgetting that some of our cultural traditions are based on christian traditions i'm interested to see if they're also prohibit the jews from soberly in hanukkah i wonder if our multiculturalism will go far. so over the coming months we're just

going to have to wait and see how locals and tourists alike take to the rebranding of a centuries old german tradition. back in half an hour's time with more news up next though we take you to a small island in the american state of virginia that state in history but his tiny population is fighting to save it from the sea. fans of the shocked your football club and kind of going to kazakhstan believe that a certain special ritual help them achieve victory against the world famous scottish team celtic this ritual was sacrificing a sheep at the stadium and someone who lives in kazakhstan for two years i know there's a real meat eating country with deeply rooted traditions in livestock racing so this news is unusual but maybe it's not completely bizarre for the culture of

course defenders of animal rights who don't seem to realize that the sheep would be turned into people of the next few days anyways demanded that you a full officials punish the shock to a club for the actions of individual fans this is the same logic as if someone wearing a sexy tim kirby t. shirt went around robbing liquor stores i am not responsible for the actions of people like this program and it's not like i'd ever advocate robbing liquor stores and i doubt the shocked your management secretly arranged for fans to slaughter the sheep at the stadium when the slaughter of animals is acceptable to you or not well that's one thing but we don't need to regulate the morality of individuals in other countries via soccer especially if that regulation means punishing the football clubs who are responsible for the actions of individuals but that's just my opinion . well. it's technology innovations all the developments from

around russia we've got the future covered. ok. i democratic it welcome you to attend your island virginia it's a little while and the middle of the chesapeake bay and of a genocide and i come back county for a population around four hundred seventy people give or take. ever most or pay for independent water money from our fisherman crabbers. and other twenty percent are our tugboat captain are our tanker our are our second mates on the six. so far we're holding on to ourself that erosion has taken taken us a way slowly but other than dad everybody saved if they contended right now worried by to future but.